Latches, for doors, enclosures and the like are well known that may be pushed to close, but then require rotation to open. For example, a majority of standard doors for a houses operate in this manner. Additionally, various latches are known that may be slammed shut to engage the latch, then require a manual operation to disengage the latch. However, these many of these latches are typically complex, heavy, do not have a compression feature whereby the door may be compressed down by operation of the latch to fully secure the door to a frame, are relatively expensive, and require a multitude of parts for their assembly. Other devices that slam to close, but require manual rotation to open exist, for example, a lid for a typical plastic milk jug where, during bottling at a bottling plant, the lid is pressed on, but the user then must rotate the lid to remove or reinstall it.
The present invention is for a novel push-to-close latch that may be used in a multitude of different applications that is of simple design and is easily manufactured at very low cost. The present latch is extremely easy to operate and accommodates various means to engage and disengage the latch mechanism.